How the all-electric home emancipates women: a drama of how the women in the family manipulate their men to upgrade the laundry facilities.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: Whirlpool Corporation
Audio/Visual: Sd, C
Keywords: Gender roles; Appliances: Sales; Home economics: Laundry

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: doowopbob - - March 15, 2010
Subject: ....If I Had...
....That Bunch Of Dim-Wits For A Family, I'd Want A Holiday Too..!

Reviewer: Marysz - - October 28, 2005
Subject: Most Wanted by Most Women
Three teenage girls trick their dads into buying new washer-dryers for their mothers in this 1952 film made by Whirlpool. Presumably their mothers are too downtrodden to ask for the washers on their own behalf. The girls take their mothers on a vacation and leave all the laundry for the dads to do. Faced with the prospect of doing the wash the old-fashioned way, the men decide to stop stalling their wives and rush out to the appliance store. Along the way, a male voice-over explains the engineering of an automatic washer and we take a tour of the Whirlpool plant in Michigan. There we see a now-vanished America that manufactured its own goods and paid its workers a livable wage. The washers are packed in boxes with Most Wanted by Most Women emblazoned across the front. One of the girls is writing an essay called What Does the Emancipation of the American Woman Mean to You? Their trick on their dads becomes the basis of her essay. Womens lives in the fifties were so impoverished that the only thing the girls could think of related to housework. Obviously, no one questions why women are the ones stuck with all the household drudgery. Or why theyre so powerless they have to resort to trickery to get their needs met. The indolent girls in this film are going to be in for an unpleasant surprise when they get married and find themselves living their mothers drab livesthe womens liberation movement of the sixties is still at least fifteen years in the future.

Reviewer: yidmadchen - - October 11, 2005
Subject: Viva la Whirlpool!
Instead of demanding up to date washing machines and dryers, the two housewives in this infomercial for Whirlpool appliances continue to slave away the old fashioned way. I fail to understand why it's up to the silly daughters to use feminine wiles in order to persuade the local Whirlpool dealer to deliver two complete sets on what appears to be a week-end and how they equate true emancipation by using a Whirlpool. An excellent piece of propaganda to put women in their place--it does Josef Goebbles proud.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - November 13, 2003
Subject: Out with the Wash
A total gem of a movie. 3 daughters take their Moms on a camping trip, leaving the fathers at home with all the laundry. The daughters thought of a rather curious plan that since one of the fathers has a new Whirlpool washer, (in their 'kitchen' the size of a tennis court) that the other fathers will want one for themselves! Pretty sneaky! There is also this subplot of one of the daughters writing a thesis on Freedom of the American Woman, and she turns this 200 page report on her washing machine. All through this is a nice history of the washing machine, and how it's constructed. Nicely photographed in rch color, and quite excellently paced, this is a MUST SEE on this site!

Shotlist

Ken Smith remarks: Sponsored by Whirlpool, this is A Fortress Of Steel meets Young Man's Fancy, and equates women's liberation with labor-saving electric appliances. Teenaged "Marilyn" helps her girlfriends trick their doofy dads into buying new electric laundry equipment for their homes by taking their moms away for a weekend. The dads indulge themselves in an all-day cribbage game (!) and experience the wonder of Marilyn's parents' "complete home laundry." The plot is interrupted by a visit to the Whirlpool assembly plant, where we see Marilyn's washing machine -- "a clean-lined, simply-designed, purely functional beauty" -- being assembled. The dads come around ("Here's real emancipation from old-fashioned chores!") and everybody is happy.

WOMEN MEN TEENAGERS ADOLESCENTS GIRLS KITCHENS LAUNDRIES APPLIANCES WASHERS MOTHERS FATHERS NARRATIVES HOUSEWORK ACTORS HOUSES HOMES INTERIORS TELEPHONES LAUNDRY CLOTHES FASHION AUTOMOBILES BUILDINGS BATHING SUITS RECREATION VACATIONS LEISURE HUMOR Gender roles Women Girls (teenage) Teenagers Appliances Houses and homes Washing machines Domestic engineering Home economics Whirlpool Corporation (sponsor) Industry Assembly lines Coca-Cola (drinking) Kitchens Surrealism Housework Telephones Clothes (washing) Laundry Emancipation (of women) Liberation (of women)
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